The Guardian Interviews Indian Philosopher, Economist Amartya Sen About New Book On Development In India

Jul 17, 2013

In a video interview with The Guardian, “Nobel prize-winning Indian philosopher and economist Amartya Sen discusses his new book, ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions.'” The newspaper notes, “He argues that there is a real need for rethinking development priorities in India, despite the country’s many achievements in IT and generic medicines,” adding, “If you judge India by the quality of human life, he says, there are huge gaps between rich and poor” (7/16). “Despite all the comfort and prestige of his status in the U.K. and the U.S. — he teaches at Harvard — [Sen] hasn’t forgotten the urgency of the plight of India’s poor, which he first witnessed as a small child in the midst of the Bengal famine of 1943,” The Guardian writes in a related article profiling Sen and discussing the contents of the book, co-written with his colleague Jean Drèze. “Despite considerable economic growth and increasing self-confidence as a major global player, modern India is a disaster zone in which millions of lives are wrecked by hunger and by pitiable investment in health and education services,” the newspaper continues, adding, “The details are outrageous but the outlines of this story are familiar and Sen and Drèze are losing patience (they have collaborated on several previous books) and their last chapter is entitled ‘The Need for Impatience.’ They want attention, particularly from the vast swath of the Indian middle classes who seem indifferent to the wretched lives of their neighbors” (Bunting, 7/16).